1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric receptacle, and more particularly to an electric wall receptacle having shuttable electric outlets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a known electric receptacle is of a front exposed and fixed type wherein it comprises a receptacle body fixed to a wall and electric contact prongs of an electric plug are inserted into apertures of each outlet of the receptacle body in a direction perpendicular to the receptacle body. In such a receptacle, the apertures of each outlet are arranged fixedly and exposedly on the front surface of the receptacle body in which electric contact terminals are contained. The apertures provide access to the contact terminals disposed inwardly of the apertures.
Referring to FIGS. 20 and 21, there is illustrated an example of such a general electric receptacle.
As shown in FIG. 20 which is a front view, the receptacle comprises a receptacle body 70 having a front surface provided with externally exposed apertures 60. When viewed in FIG. 21, which is a side view, the apertures 60 extend from the front surface arranged at the same plane as the front surface of an outer plate 40, inwardly, that is, in perpendicular to the front surface of outer plate 40.
Near the inner ends of apertures 60, contact terminals 62 are fixedly mounted to the receptacle body 70. The receptacle body 70 is fixed to a fixing member 72 which is, in turn, mounted to a box 32 buried in a wall 30 by means of screws 34.
Although other various receptacles have been known, they are the same as the above-mentioned receptacle, in terms of the basic construction being of the front exposed and fixed type requiring electric contact prongs of an electric plug to be inserted into apertures of each outlet of the receptacle body in a direction perpendicular to the receptacle body.
In case of using the above-mentioned type of receptacles, an electric plug 46 is connected to the receptacle by inserting its contact prongs into the apertures of receptacle in a direction perpendicular to the receptacle body 70, as shown in FIG. 21.
However, this type of connection wherein the plug 46 is connected to the receptacle body 70 in a direction perpendicular to the receptacle body causes the plug 46 to protrude forwardly of the receptacle and thereby occupy a considerable space at the front of the wall to which the receptacle is installed. Such a protrusion of plug 46 results in a degradation in appearance and lacking a sense of security. The protruded plug 46 may be also an obstacle to other objects. In particular, where the receptacle have a plurality of outlets, the above-mentioned disadvantages become severe since a plurality of plugs 46 are disorderly connected to the receptacle and disorderly protruded from the receptacle.
In the above case, when the plug 46 is coupled to the receptacle, an electric cord 47 which is connected to the rear end of the plug 46 is bent at the rear end of plug vertically or laterally. Due to such a bending, a part of inner wires of the cord are likely to be cut off. As a result, a spark may occur at the cut-off wire portions of the cord upon shifting the cord, so that other wires and claddings may be degraded or melted by a heat generated due to the spark. This may result in a fire.
Another disadvantage of the conventional receptacle is that since the contact terminals coupled to an electric power source is exposed to external through the apertures, infants and small children not only can block up the apertures easily, but also easily contact with the contact terminals by insertion of metal objects into the apertures and thereby are in a danger of receiving an electric shock. In cases of playing with a heating appliance such as an electric pot, an electric frying pan or an electric iron, they can easily connect the plug of the heating appliance to the receptacle since the apertures of the receptacle are directly exposed. Where the plug is carelessly coupled to the receptacle as mentioned above, the heating appliance may be overheated, thereby causing the children to suffer heavy burns and the appliance to be damaged. Moreover, there is a danger of a fire.
The conventional receptacle has another disadvantage that it injures the beauty of interior decoration because at least two apertures thereof are exposed outwardly. It has also a limitation on the design of its appearance, in that the exposure of apertures is inevitably involved in designing its outer plate and receptacle body.
In case of a multi-apertured receptacle having a plurality of outlets, the size of the receptacle body increases, only in one direction, in proportion to the number of outlets since the outlets are arranged on the front surface of receptacle body to align with one another. As a result, the overall construction of the receptacle is bulky in planar, resulting in an increase in manufacture cost.
Such a multi-apertured receptacle often has no utility, not only because it is not only expensive, but also because when it is buried in a wall of a house or building, the number and arrangement of outlets thereof do not often meet the requirement of user.
For instance, the installed receptacle may be partially hidden by a furniture or other facility installed in the house. Otherwise, an electric appliance may have a short length of cord insufficient to be connected to the fixedly installed receptacle. It may be also required to further increase the number of outlets, for using several electric appliances simultaneously. In these cases, it is needed to extend electric power wires from the electric power source outwardly of the receptacle and connect a separate electric receptacle to the electric power wires, for increasing the number of outlets or lengthening the cord. Otherwise, a separate multi-apertured receptacle may be used which has a long cord provided at its one end with a plug. Only in case of increasing the number of outlets, a separate multi-apertured receptacle with a plug may be coupled to the fixedly installed receptacle. However, a part of or all the methods have disadvantages of being dangerous when practiced by unskilled persons, increasing cost in installation and manufacture, and degrading the beauty of appearance.
Accordingly, there have been many proposals for overcoming the disadvantages encountered in the above-mentioned receptacles. However, the applicant believes that none of the proposals does not eliminate fully all of the above-mentioned disadvantages. They solve only a part of the disadvantages and rather encounter other disadvantages making them have no utility.
There have been also proposed floor receptacles distinguishable from the above-mentioned general receptacles. These floor receptacles are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication Nos. Sho 58-11916, Sho 58-34370, Sho 58-34372, Sho 59-69620, Sho 60-108126 and Sho 60-177617.
These floor receptacles have a construction comprising a receptacle body buried in a floor and provided with an outer plate, and a cover formed at the center portion of outer plate and pivotally connected to the outer plate. Electric outlets and connect terminals are formed at the lower portion of cover to be integral with or separated from the cover so that the electric outlets are exposed to external upon opening the cover and hidden in the receptacle body upon closing the cover. Upon closing, the cover is flush with the outer plate of receptacle body. At one side of the receptacle body, a pivotal support member is provided which carries a compression spring adapted to always urge the cover toward its opening position. At one side of the outer plate, a locking member with a manipulation button is disposed to lock the cover at its closing position. With this construction, when the receptacle is at a normal state, namely, a non-use state, it can be maintained at the condition wherein the cover is closed so as to hide the outlets in the receptacle body. When the receptacle is desired to be used, the outlets can be exposed by manipulating the manipulation button to release the locking of the cover by the locking member, so that the plug of an electric appliance can be inserted into the exposed outlet.
Although being more or less complex, these floor receptacles which have the provision of the pivotally opening and closing cover are very advantageous, when they are installed in a floor, in that the outlets are normally hidden in the receptacle body buried in the floor, as compared with the above-mentioned wall receptacles.
For example, where the above-mentioned wall receptacles are installed at the floor, the outlets are always exposed upwardly to external, so that foreign matters are likely to enter the exposed apertures of the outlets, resulting in blocking of the apertures, damaging of the receptacle and short circuiting. Whereas, the floor receptacles as mentioned above solve effectively the problems encountered in the wall receptacles.
Where the floor receptacles are applied to a wall, they may also exhibit an advantage of partially solving the problems of the wall receptacles. However, the application is difficult to widely extend to all of the wall receptacles and other general type receptacles.
In constructions of the floor receptacles, the cover is pivotally lifted upon opening and maintained at inclined state, so that the outlets and contact terminals disposed beneath the cover are also protruded at inclined state. As a result, the protruded area at which the outlets are formed is naturally small.
In case of applying to plugs having no ground prong, the floor receptacles can have up to two outlets at each side of its protruding member. In case of applying to triangular plugs having three prongs including the ground prong, however, they are difficult to have two outlets at each side of its protruding member.
The outlets are arranged along the protruding member and thus disposed inclinedly due to the inclination of the protruding member. When a plug is coupled to the inclinedly disposed outlet, therefore, it is inclinedly held, thereby causing the connection condition to be unstable and the appearance to be bad.
Consequently, such pivotal receptacles are improper to use as wall receptacles, although being useful as floor receptacles which are used occasionally.